Sam Hollander
SONGWRITER
Press
Then something peculiar happened. Simon Cowell heard it and loved it. Dr. Luke and Max Martin as well. Luke hopped on board to produce. The song got fast-tracked. In an instant, it permeated the track listing for 2013’s hardest record to access. It was kinda like waking up to find a brand new pair of limited edition Nike MAG Back to the Future sneakers gifted under the bed. That One Direction album went on to sell six million copies. “Rock Me” went gold in a bunch of countries.
It was the day before [my daughter’s] Joey’s twelfth birthday, and I was lying on my back porch when I finally got the go-ahead to give the verses a shot. The album was set to master within a week! I slapped my head- phones on, shut my eyes, and blasted the track on loop. I knew my job was pretty pivotal on this joint. Beyond the time sensitivity, I had to be the glue to bring this thing home. There was zero room for error.
I decided to frame it in a narrative. This meant threading the most delicate of needles — to keep it aspirational, but not preachy or contrived. The words came flooding from head to hands instantaneously. In totality, the verses took a solid thirty minutes to write, tops. The first was a conversation with my late mother. The second was a dialogue with my soon-to-be twelve-year-old. I guess in my head, the sum of the parts was the passing of the generational torch. I hoped it would drip of that ’70s lyrical optimism that I loved as a kid. Most importantly, I could see Brendon absolutely exploding on a whole other level, if he did his thing on the track. It felt like fire.
An hour later, I drove over to Jake’s house on the Silver Lake Reservoir and sang it to those cats. Evan really responded to it, which was an awesome indicator. That night, Brendon dug further into the melody and totally elevated it. Shit was a wrap.
Baltin: Most artists do not go and look back. So they really don't get a chance to understand the perspective on everything. So as you got through this, did you then start to understand the extent of the futility? And was there a moment where you're like, "What made me not give up?"
Hollander: Yeah, all of the above. Truth be told, I'm somebody who rarely listens to anything previous after a couple of months after a song drops. I try to eradicate it from my jukebox in my head because I want to keep pushing forward and I don't want to repeat the same record. So it's rare that I listen to my stuff. And [for] this book, I really had to do a deep dive back into my history and specifically all the warts. And what was fascinating was really beginning to understand the role I had in songs that didn't work and how tremendously responsible I was for a lot of things, just judgment calls early on in my career. I made the wrong call. And that was a massive reveal for me. Because I truthfully am always pushing ahead. I like to revisit things many years away over a glass of wine, but I don't try to dwell on what I've done. So this was a trip, man. And just even dancing in a completely different medium was just so insane. So it was fascinating.
Is there a formula for writing/recording hit songs?
Yeah, you could probably say songwriting has always been somewhat formula driven, but 2022 might be the first time that I can recall the bulk of the rulebook being tossed out the window. TikTok has completely decimated the landscape as we know it and the music industry is in a state of absolute anarchy. Any song can work, which in some respects is very DIY awesome. That being said, a good portion of this now seemingly endless output is underwhelming at best. These are indeed crazy days.
Writing is nothing new for Hollander, who has 22 top-40 hit singles to his credit, including 10 No. 1 songs. During his career, he’s worked with artists like Panic! At The Disco, One Direction, Katy Perry, Ringo Starr, Carole King, Weezer, Def Leppard, Blink-182, Fitz and the Tantrums, Tyga, The O’Jays, Gym Class Heroes and many more.
Sam Hollander was the #1 writer on the Billboard Rock Songwriters Chart for a consecutive 9 weeks
Hollander admits that he was a late addition to the credits of “High Hopes.” “By the time I got in the mix, both the chorus and pre-chorus were in place, but no one had connected the dots on the verses,” the songwriter says of Panic! at the Disco hit. “I was sort of the Elmer’s glue.” Only a few months after the track came together, Hollander heard it live at a sold-out MSG show: “I knew I was a part of something special when I watched the group perform it in my hometown of NYC and the entire arena sang along to every word.” But Hollander was more impressed by its success on the radio. “Witnessing this tune hit No. 1 on three different formats simultaneously was pretty swell. As a kid who was raised on Casey Kasem, that was indeed some craziness.”
Sony/ATV Music Publishing has signed songwriter Sam Hollander to a worldwide futures deal. The NYC native is coming off the success of a co-write credit for the Panic! at the Disco worldwide hit "High Hopes," which reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 2018.
In addition to Panic!, Hollander has worked with a highly eclectic mix of artists including One Direction, Katy Perry, Train, Weezer, Carole King, Gym Class Heroes, DNCE, Joe Cocker, Blink-182, Goo Goo Dolls, Capital Cities, Coheed and Cambria and Violent Femmes, among others.
You also brought in some new collaborators, like Sam Hollander, who co-wrote Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes” and Fitz and the Tantrums’ “HandClap.”
Sam Hollander is the best prize a boy could have. I didn't know him. He didn't know me. He told somebody he’d like to work with Ringo. That person told Bruce Grakal, my lawyer, who told me and I said, “I don’t know…All right, send him over. Let's have a chat.” We sat in my room in the house, and we’re chatting for about an hour. I say, “Let's see what we've got going. There’s a guitar over there” [He says] “I don't play guitar.” “No problem. We'll go to the studio. Plenty of pianos.” “I don't play piano.” I said, “OK. See you Friday, bring your guitarist.” And that’s when we got "Thank God for Music.” He had it started and I threw my [part] in. [Hollander also wrote “Better Days” on the album.]
"A long project is like a secret houseguest, hidden in your study, waiting to be fed and visited."
So go the words of the writer John Hollander, an honored poet and a distinguished member of the faculty at Yale University who passed away in 2013. Aside from simply being a thoughtful line, its sentiments could also easily be applied to Hollander's nephew Sam, the pop songwriter who grew up with the same itch for creativity and self-expression as John, constructing a career by tending to many "secret houseguests" of his own.
"He was a rock star in the world of poetry and it really helped light a match," says Sam from his Los Angeles studio. "I came from an incredible creative stock; my dad was a dancer and my mom was an artist herself and a writer, among all of these other things. In my family, it was pretty much expected we stay weird at all costs. While my uncle's work was over my head, I did notice his wordplay was extremely sophisticated. I think both his writing and the early days of rap was what really shaped my voice as a lyricist."
Notable among his collaborators was Sam Hollander, who co-wrote the title track of the new album.
“He’s amazing, man. That guy’s from another planet.”
…Sam Hollander, whose eclectic sensibilities and humble attitude have found a nurturing home in the successful production team called S*A*M and Sluggo (Dave Katz). The duo, whose studio shares space in a Manhattan office with Ozone Entertainment and Crush Management (an environment akin to The Monkees’ living room), has written and produced for some of the hottest young pop-punk bands today, including Metro Station (“Shake It”), Cobra Starship (“Snakes on a Plane”), Boys Like Girls (“The Great Escape”), Gym Class Heroes (“As Cruel As School Children”), We The Kings (“Check Yes Juliet”) and many more
Hollander and partner Dave “Sluggo” Katz have become go-to producers for teen-centric pop-punk hits (Metro Station’s “Shake It,” Cobra Starship’s “Snakes on a Plane”). Says emo kingpin Pete Wentz, “We bring them cupcakes, they deliver the frosting.” It all happens in a room that Katz describes as “some guitars, a bong and a vocal booth.”
But it should also be remembered as the moment when S*A*M met Sluggo. This duo, born Sam Hollander and Dave Katz, produced the film’s theme song, by the generally insipid electro-punk band Cobra Starship, an inauspicious beginning to what has become an influential partnership.